I've been a long advocate of doing away with prisons...even though this may not be a popular view...

there should be no prisons at all...in my opinion they are more inhumane than just killing them...

non-violent offenders should be dealt with in some other way than prison...community service, half-way houses, work restitution, etc...

violent offenders should just be killed...( like I said not a popular opinion )

now I'm not advocating that if you get punched in the face by some belligerent drunk that you or the State should kill him...I'm talking about ' violent people ' the type you put away for 5 years because he/she is considered unfit to live among us...

minor assaults, etc...should be dealt with by fines and restitution...eg. someone rabbit punches ya, $500 fine and $500 restitution, or confiscation of property equal to fine/restitution.

I beg to differ, especially when they get given, TV's, PS3's etc. UK prisons are too damn cushy, and as far as I am concerned if those people are unable to live by the law of the land, they should be in some uncomfortable shithole. I believe in equal rights, therefore if someone has no respect for society, then society is quite right in not respecting them.

El's is right...prisons in the US used to be hardcore (aka Alcatraz for example) where the prisoners had to do community service on top of not getting all these cushy benefits. The only "benefit" in Alcatraz was that they were given warm/hot showers and that was only because they then wouldn't get used to cold showers, escape, then swim the Bay which is consisted of the cold Pacific water.

Now, prisons are a joke. So many things are f'd up about what sends someone to prison versus a mental facility versus potential death penalty. Just recently, we had a guy given the lethal injection AFTER 10+ years of being in prison and it was for raping and killing a woman yet we'll let someone like Susan Smith off in a mental hospital for killing her own two kids and the death penalty was NEVER even brought up once. I certainly don't like nor want to pay for some b*tch's choice because it's my tax dollars keeping her alive. Don't get me wrong, I don't want nor like keeping some guy who raped and killed someone alive either.

Most of all, if we just changed it to "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth", a lot of sh!t would stop. Oh, you drowned your two kids, ok, we're going to strap you in a seat and make it so you can't get out and flood the compartment to .25" from your nose, then drain it, then do it again until you can't fight it anymore, then just flood it all the way and youtube you drowning. Oh, you want to rape and kill some poor woman? Ok, we're going to let loose 10 women from the women's correctional and see how long you live; once again, being youtube'd.

In the world of protection, one thing is for sure: security = 1 / convenience.